For anyone with an interest in the history of clothing, dress, textiles, lace and embroidery, paricularly of the early modern period, 1550-1750

Wednesday, 18 January 2017

17th Century Men’s Dress Patterns 1600-1630 – book review

This is the third book in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s
series of patterns from seventeenth century clothing in their collection, and
the first to deal with men’s wear. (1)
The book has 12 chapters covers 13 items in the V&A collection, 7 can be
considered as accessories and 6 as main garments.

The book begins with a short summary of what a man’s
wardrobe would consist of at this time, based on surviving wills and
inventories from all levels of society. There is also an explanation of
clothing terms used at the time, much of it based on Randal Holmes Academy of
Armoury.

There are almost 150 pages of patterns and construction
details. Two thirds of these relate to the six main garments, which are three
doublets (c1600-10, c.1620 and c1625-30), a suit comprising doublet and
breeches (c1618) and a cloak (c1560-1600). Most of these have not had patterns
published before, however the suit is that of Sir Richard Cotton, and patterns
for that have appeared in Arnold(2) and Waugh (3), but not in such
detail.For each garment there are
portraits of men wearing similar garments, masses of photographic details of
both the exterior and interior of the garment and x-rays. These are followed by
pages of patterns and finally by details of the construction.

The seven accessories comprise a sword girdle and hangers, a
felt hat, a picadil, an embroidered nightcap, a linen nightcap liner, a pair of
mittens and a linen stocking. Again these have not appeared before and,
although this is a book of men’s patterns, the hat, mittens and stockings could
be worn by either sex.

The detailed
examinations that the authors have done are incredible, and show us both what
can and cannot be ascertained though detailed examination, for example even
though fibres from the hat were examined microscopically it was not possible to
determine the type of felt used. Where possible details are given which will
allow for reconstruction. The buttons on the first doublet are described as “woven
in a chevron pattern using green silk floss and silver-gilt filé threads”.The pattern for the bobbin lace on the
nightcap is detailed enough for anyone who knows how to make bobbin lace to
produce a copy. There are step by step instructions on how to produce the
finger looped lace on the linen stocking.